This invention relates to the field of stereoscopic viewing and in particular to the use of single cell liquid crystal shutter glasses.
Typical Liquid Crystal (LC) shutter glasses are composed of two separate liquid crystal shutters that open and closed in an alternating pattern that is synchronized to the command of an image display system. Further, current systems use LC cells that are constructed from glass substrates that are non-flexible and limit the range of designs achievable for the glasses. The present invention offers a new approach to the construction of LC shutter glasses by using a single flexible LC cell as the active element. The advantages of the present invention over prior art include a simpler drive scheme requiring only two wires, lower cost due to a single larger LC cell, a flexible substrate allowing simple curvature of the shutter for a broader range of design, and lighter weight due to the elimination of the glass substrates. Previous patents and applications by, Faris, Lazzaro, Divelbiss, Swift, Guralnick, Lipton, and Tettington have fixed field of view LC filters. The time-multiplexed technique for viewing electronic stereoscopic images is now a standard viewing modality for computer graphics and video. During the past decade, electro-stereoscopic displays have become a well-established means for viewing images.
All of these systems use liquid crystal (“LC”) shuttering eyewear for viewing stereoscopic images are described in the following patents and patent applications: U.S. Pat. No. 4,884,876 entitled “Achromatic Liquid Crystal Shutter For Stereoscopic And Other Applications;” U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,268entitled “Liquid Crystal Shutter System For Stereoscopic And Other Applications;” U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,302 entitled “High Dynamic Range Electro-Optical Shutter For Stereoscopic And Other Applications;” U.S. Pat. No. 5,181,133 entitled “Drive Method For Twisted Nematic Liquid Crystal Shutters For Stereoscopic And Other Applications; U.S. Pat. No. 5,463,428 entitled “Wireless Active Eyewear For Stereoscopic Applications;” ; High Dynamic Range Electro-optical Shutter For Stereoscopic And Other Applications; U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,250 entitled “Universal Electronic Stereoscopic Display and WO 98/54614 entitled “Electrostereocopic Eyewear.” Additional patents describing LC shutter glasses include: U.S. Pat. No. 5,821,989 entitled “Stereoscopic 3-D View System and Glasses Having Electro-optical Shutters Controlled By Control Signals produced by Using Horizontal Pulse Detection Within the Vertical Synchronization Pulse Period of Computer Generated Video Signals”; U. S. Pat. No. 6,295,065 entitled Method and Apparatus To Alternate Stereoscopic Images In a Video Display Device”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,088,052 entitled “3D Stereoscopic Video Display System”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,278,501 entitled Three Dimensional Liquid Shutter Glasses”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,359,664 entitled Electro-optical Display System For Visually Displaying Polarized Spatially Multiplexed Images of 3-D Objects for Use In Stereoscopically Viewing The Same With High Quality and High Resolution; and WO 01/25836 entitled 3D Shutter Glass and Line Blanker System. All of the above patents and patent applications are hereby incorporated by reference.
LC shuttering eyewear for the mass consumer market must be manufactured at the lowest possible cost of goods in order to compete in what is essentially a commodity marketplace. Therefore, there is a need for a shutter glass system that has lower cost, simplicity of design and a flexible substrate that allows for broader range of glasses designs.